Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is composed of community leaders with broad-ranging backgrounds, who lend their expertise for the support, strategic leadership and oversight of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center.

Deborra Clark Oser – Chair

Deborra is the Principal of Deborra Clark Oser & Associates, LLC, a firm specializing in transformational leadership and the field of human development. Deborra received her M.B.A from Bellarmine University and has over twenty years of experience in the corporate world. Deborra serves as an Integral Master Coach,™ a certified Enneagram Teacher in the Narrative Tradition and a spiritual director.

John Huber – Vice-chair

John is the retired President and CEO of the Louisville Water Company. He has served on other boards including the Louisville Science Center, the Louisville Branch of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of St. Louis, the Better Business Bureau, the University of Louisville Board of Overseers, and the Louisville Marine Hospital Foundation.

Carl Gallmeister – Secretary

Carl works as a capacity manager for UPS and has 23 years of airline management experience. He brings hands-on experience with Earth & Spirit Center programming, having participated actively in twelve mindful meditation classes and the 2012 Pilgrimage to India. Carl has also served as a Mentor for Young men at Brooklawn.

Crawford Wells – Treasurer

Crawford is retired from working in the restaurant industry for over 40 years. He sold his last restaurant, W. W. Cousins, in 2017. He is also on the board of Commonwealth Bank and Trust's Holding Company.

Donna Benton

Donna has served for over four decades as a secondary school teacher and is currently an administrator for Jefferson County Public Schools. The first half of her educational career was as a theology teacher, campus minister, and retreat director in Catholic High Schools. She facilitates Earth & Spirit Center programming that helps educators bring mindfulness into their personal practice and to apply it professionally within their schools.

Barbara Barry Banta

Retired from a 30+ year career in publishing, publication design and small business ownership, Barbara is a founding member of the Mindfulness Mentors, an Earth and Spirit Center outreach program in which volunteers mentor and share the practice of mindfulness with some of Louisville's underserved communities. Barbara has been an enthusiastic meditation student at the Earth and Spirit Center for 10+ years. She and her husband have raised three sons within the Saint Agnes Parish School and community.

David M. Feldkamp

David is an Assistant Jefferson County Attorney prosecuting child abuse cases for over 20 years. He also maintains a civil law practice. David has completed multiple classes at the Earth and Spirit Center and is an advocate for mindfulness among his fellow attorneys.

Dr. Sharon Grant

Sharon is a retired hospital chaplain. She currently serves as a retreat facilitator, spiritual director, and associate editor of FORsooth, the monthly newsletter of Louisville’s Fellowship of Reconciliation community. Sharon is also an urban farmer and is involved in environmental work in the community.

Di Anne Kerrigan

Di retired after selling MDI Technologies, a medical software business based out of St. Louis, MO. Di served on the Board of Directors for MDI Technologies, and was the Executive Vice President, Vice President Sales and Marketing, and partner for 14 years. Di currently serves as an Advisor to Interfaith Paths to Peace and sponsors its meditation program in the Portland neighborhood, volunteers with Kentucky Refugee Ministries, and serves as a Mindfulness Mentor with the Earth & Spirit Center.

Mike Kuharich

Mike is an Information Technology Manager at Humana and has served on the board of the Tyler Park Neighborhood Association.

Br. John Monzyk, CP

Br. John has been a member of the Passionist community, a Catholic religious order, for over 50 years. He holds a doctorate in physics and has taught at the high school through university level. He currently serves as the Superior of the Sacred Heart Passionist Retreat, which founded the Earth & Spirit Center and on whose property the Center operates.

Liz Nickley

Liz has lived in Louisville for the last 15 years and has worked in Development & Community Involvement for over 20 years. She received her Bachelors of Social Work from the University of Cincinnati in 1995. She has experience in event planning, volunteer development, fundraising, and community outreach. She is currently the Director of Development & Community Involvement at Maryhurst. She is also a volunteer with Hosparus.

Brian Riendeau

Brian is Executive Director of Dare to Care Food Bank. Established in 1971, Dare to Care delivers over 19 million meals each year through a variety of programs to Kentuckiana families struggling with hunger. He previously served as Vice President of Government & Community Affairs at Yum Brands, and spent six years as a Legislative Assistant for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Washington, DC. Brian serves on the board of the Kentucky Food Bank Association and is a member of the Kentucky Hunger Task Force.

Dr. Robb Shrader, M.D.

Robb has been a practicing ophthalmologist in Louisville since 1989. He and his wife Anna have three children and are involved in service and formation as parish members of the Cathedral of the Assumption. In addition to taking courses at the Earth & Spirit Center, Robb has also earned a masters degree in theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology.

Olivia Webb

Olivia serves as controller for the Woodford Reserve Distillery within Brown-Forman Corporation. Olivia holds degrees from Bellarmine University and Western Kentucky University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Advisory Board Members

Tony Arnold

Tony Arnold is the Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use and Chair of the interdisciplinary Center for Land Use and Environmental Responsibility at the University of Louisville School of Law and has previously served as the Law School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development.

Christy Brown

Christy Brown, owner of Louisville Stoneware, is co-founder of the Center for Interfaith Relations (formerly known as the Cathedral Heritage Foundation) which sponsors the nationally recognized Festival of Faiths. She also works with Religions for Peace, the world’s largest interfaith organization dedicated to ending war, eradicating poverty, and protecting the Earth.

Tom FitzGerald

Tom FitzGerald, Director of the Kentucky Resources Council (KRC), also serves as Adjunct Professor of Energy and Environmental law at the Brandeis School of Law. KRC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization providing free legal, strategic and policy assistance to individuals, organizations and communities concerning environmental quality and resource extraction issues

Jim Wayne

Jim Wayne is now a former member of the Kentucky General Assemby. Jim served from 1991-2018, representing the 35th House District. Jim is president of the Wayne Corporation. Other areas of service include the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless, Kentucky Society for Clinical Social Work, Metropolitan Housing Coalition, and past president of the National Association of Social Workers.

Sr Kathleen Deignan, CND, PhD

Sr. Deignan was the founder of the Iona Peace and Justice Studies Program and the Iona Peace Institute in Ireland (1988-1995). She is the founder and director of the Iona Spirituality Institute which sponsors a variety of programs for spiritual enrichment. Sr. Deignan is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the International Thomas Merton Society and the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. She is currently a professor of theology at Iona College.

Rev. Fletcher Harper

The Reverend Fletcher Harper is an Episcopal priest and the executive director of Greenfaith, one of the oldest religious-environmental organizations in the United States, whose mission is to inspire, educate and mobilize people of diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership. For its work, Greenfaith has received recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency and has been featured in documentaries on CBS and the Sundance Channel.